All of these photos in today's post are from our guided bus tour around Berlin. We had a really great guide named Kevin Kennedy (a native Berliner despite the name, though his dad was an American GI). He's a doctoral student in history, and had great stories about many of the sites, and a great set of funny comments about nearly as many (often referring to American movies set in Germany or Berlin-- he had a special animosity for Tom Cruise). It was an extremely entertaining couple of hours, even if the pictures suffer from being shot through windows. Above you see Ben taking a picture of a large remnant of the Berlin Wall that we drove past.
This is just a busy street scene near the Kurdamm neighborhood (if I recall correctly), a major shopping district, which we would return to the next day on foot. This part of the city really reminded me of Manhattan-- lots of upscale stores and pedestrian clogged sidewalks.
The bus also took us to Potsdamer Platz, a very modern entertainment section of the city. At the end of the street above, you can see a big casino that would probably fit right into the Vegas strip.
Here's a closer look at the casino, which by the way sits on Marlene Dietrich Strasse (also close by: the Billy Wilder bar).
This is the Berlin Symphony Hall. According to Kevin it is home to the greatest orchestra in the world, though he acknowledged that the Philadelphia Philharmonic might have a claim on the title as well ( I gather because they have a German conductor).
This building was a military headquarters during the Nazi years, and in fact was the spot where the plot to overthrow Hitler fell apart (lots of cracks about Tom Cruise and his recent film
Valkyrie kept us in chuckles as we drove by), with the plotters executed in the square in the background. Tomorrow: a few more shots from this tour.
All of these photos in today's post are from our guided bus tour around Berlin. We had a really great guide named Kevin Kennedy (a native Berliner despite the name, though his dad was an American GI). He's a doctoral student in history, and had great stories about many of the sites, and a great set of funny comments about nearly as many (often referring to American movies set in Germany or Berlin-- he had a special animosity for Tom Cruise). It was an extremely entertaining couple of hours, even if the pictures suffer from being shot through windows. Above you see Ben taking a picture of a large remnant of the Berlin Wall that we drove past.
This is just a busy street scene near the Kurdamm neighborhood (if I recall correctly), a major shopping district, which we would return to the next day on foot. This part of the city really reminded me of Manhattan-- lots of upscale stores and pedestrian clogged sidewalks.
The bus also took us to Potsdamer Platz, a very modern entertainment section of the city. At the end of the street above, you can see a big casino that would probably fit right into the Vegas strip.
Here's a closer look at the casino, which by the way sits on Marlene Dietrich Strasse (also close by: the Billy Wilder bar). 
This is the Berlin Symphony Hall. According to Kevin it is home to the greatest orchestra in the world, though he acknowledged that the Philadelphia Philharmonic might have a claim on the title as well ( I gather because they have a German conductor).
This building was a military headquarters during the Nazi years, and in fact was the spot where the plot to overthrow Hitler fell apart (lots of cracks about Tom Cruise and his recent film Valkyrie kept us in chuckles as we drove by), with the plotters executed in the square in the background. Tomorrow: a few more shots from this tour.
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